we all have to come together and work through problems together. my best wishes to everyone in the eye of the storm. we will see you here tomorrow. have a good evening. ♪ ♪ >> this is a caboodle special report. here is neil cavuto. neil: m.d., we are tracking hurricane sandy. a lot of folks not at all dandy. reports come in confirmed that hurricane sandy has hit atlantic city. that city was already underwater with the advanced warning of waves coming. leaves are eight to 12 feet.

welcome, everybody. for the next three hours, we will be giving you nonstock special coverage on what is at stake on what is already a busy day in midtown, manhattan. it is about as windy and inhospitable as it has ever been in recent memory. further uptown, radio city, which is getting ready for its famed christmas show in a little more tha weeks. hang a left towards columbus circle, and you have an ongoing construction potential catastrophe developing. this is earlier today. outside a building known as 157. this is one of the grandest and most expensive buildings on the planet. i say that because when it is completed by the spring, it will be the tallest residential

structure on all of god's earth. also, the priciest when all of god's earth. the penthouse of that building is $100 million. average sales for condos in that unit, and keep in mind, it is virtually all sold out, even before it was finished. $10 million. now, you have this crane is falling apart in the bad winds that we were picking up earlier this morning. nothing compared to the winds that have yet to pick up. in fact, they caught this by waves of audio and pedestrian traffic. the thorough fare that the world uses has been reduced to a halt. all of this hits the fan really within the next few minutes.

it is high time, and we are 58 minutes away from that. this is already a day we have seen the new york stock exchange. no more treating their tomorrow great as well, we have never seen something like this by mother nature. not in the better part of a century. the enormous business in all of this on a wet and nasty night. one that i expect will get nastier. reporter: yes, i live on 20th street. the east river has flooded halfway through 20th street, just so you know that. this is pretty wild stuff that i never thought i'd see from my apartment. you are right. the business aspect is huge. there is a debate going on right now whether the market should have closed. we should point out that yes, this is a very bad storm. the markets you would expect --

these guys have automated systems. electronic trading system is located in chicago. the nasdaq has a system, i believe it is the bethesda, this is a huge thing. we are going how corporate america -- we are not going to know what the value of ibm is for two days. that, to me, is a big story that is pretty amazing. neil: the argument is we have the indication from the national hurricane center, a formal landfall of the hurricane, we go by their report, they say the landfall will be around atlantic city, new jersey, area, about an hour from now, which would also be high tide. which gets me back to the argument that for the better part of safety, it is important. the folks who say, say what?

>> it doesn't mean that you have to have people at the new york stock exchange. it doesn't mean that you have to have goldman have headquarters on west street. it doesn't mean that we have to be there. the notion that these markets need to have physical people there is crazy. they do not. it works better with people and i will tell you that having computers work together is the best way to go. all of these guys, there should be stock trading. we should have some open. they could've opened today. maybe one day offer than the ticket. neil: what is interesting is that they are already preannounce tomorrow, and obviously, if you have your 401k or any of them, but more importantly in europe and asia, you cannot trade off of that and continuu trading across the united states. it does complicate things.

capitalism is in many ways to shut down because of this. you need a functioning market. you have to know what the prices of ibm. that does not take physical people at the new york stock exchange. this is a failure of people not planning. i am telling you that after 9/11, they would've thought that they had this thing settled, and they do not. neil: all right, charlie. we will try to get back to you. he is near 20th street. it is a flat and low-lying area. that entire area was reason enough earlier this morning for arteries going to and from downtown new york over the world old trade center virtually all arteries in and out of manhattan

had been shut down. that is the only avenue connecting that into the rest of the world. all other arteries, including the george washington bridge, all other arteries leading this great island of manhattan have been shut down. a lot of that is moving ahead of a fast-moving storm. the night is likely going to get louder, meaner, and certainly a lot nastier. justin, what are you looking at? reporter: neil, as we follow this, it is on the verge of making landfall. the impacts are far-reaching. let's talk about the storm surge. very critical here in battery park.

currently over 7 feet already. we have seen the water rise over a foot. we expect conditions to deteriorate deteriorate and then very slowly we will see the system unravel as the night wears on. neil: are you getting any sense looking at this how it could just sort of hang? >> what distinguishes the storm now is that it has become a very bad tropical storm. but it just hangs and does nothing more than hang affecting one over four people in this country, that is going to do a lot of damage. >> that is what we expect as the system moves ashore. it will slow down so the constant southeast east wind will continue to pile up water all along long island. the impacts are going to be far-reaching throughout the overnight and also into tuesday. wildwood, cape may, taking a

pounding overnight. neil: also the flooding issue that we are dealing with. a full moon and high tide. we are dealing with what would be excessive flooding. some of the numbers startle me that a photo roader in some places, 2 feet of snow in west virginia, it almost seems unrealistic. but explain why that is. >> well, we have a lot of factors come into play. a very large tropical system, we have a potent system, the coldest air mass of the season meeting up with tropical moisture alone. we also had a lot of jetstream viewing the system. the three coming into play, heavy snow, the west virginia mountains, gusty winds at the jersey coastline all the way up to massachusetts. the flooding, the rain aspect along the western flanks

50 miles per hour, we will see eight or 12 inches of water through tuesday afternoon. neil: you have heard a lot about this being called the perfect storm. it is more than just hurricane cindy. you didn't have this other storm that was moving in from the west that collided with this and cold arctic air from the north. record snowfalls in parts of virginia. that would explain the flooding all the way up the east coast. it results in a lot of folks losing power. the estimates are that i write and early tomorrow morning, when tomorrow when they wake up, it will not be with the help of their alarm clocks, but their battery-powered alarm clocks because the estimate is that tomorrow morning, 20 million americans will be without power.

at this junction already, 1 million are. in the city of not so brotherly love for storm. it is anything but seems they haven't been moving much lately. but things are starting to turn around because of business people like you. and regions is here to help. with the experience and service to keep things rolling. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together.

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neil: all right, well, we knew that this would be bad. we are now discovering how bad. a number of americans affected up and down the east coast. it could ultimately include anywhere from 40 to 60 million americans. philadelphia is already getting crews and getting branches ready. one half to 2 million have lost power along the northeast

corridor. how are things right now? >> getting through the best we can. similar situations somewhat in new york. heavy winds and philadelphia is in the direct path of hurricane cindy. we have geared up our forces. all emergency forces, police, fire, ems services as well as we have partnered with the state and federal agencies and citizens have heeded our call. in high schools as well as a number of folks relocating on their own with friends and family. philadelphia is, we are geared up.

citizens are also taking it very seriously. it is a tough one out there just might. neil: mayor, he mentioned a lot of people that heeded your warning and advice read people that did not go to work. it was here in new york by march, but not across the board. what about tomorrow, mayor? will be telling folks? >> tomorrow is city government being closed, except for emergency personnel that has been identified already. the city is closed. the city council, the sheriff, the district attorney. all of them are shut down. mass transit will not operate for most of the day. while public schools and catholic schools and charter schools closed, as well as a bunch of colleges and universities. everyone has taken this very seriously down here. our number-one goal number one goal is public safety. and to make sure that people are in good shape to be one you know, mayor, other power

companies have been saying much the same. i don't know about yours, sir, but are you raising people for that payment when they do lose power, it could be for some time? >> we try to be realistic and honest. last year, you know, we aired on the side of caution. it might be three days and it might be one wifi. sometimes it ends up being three days. we have excellent utilities down here. certainly in the gasworks as well as the water department. they are working in concert. keep the power on but ask our citizens for help. it is dangerous.

this is normally one of the busiest streets in the world. the wind and the rain that is pounding right now the height of this is 42 minutes away. i don't know how they calculate that, but that is when formal landfall off of atlantic city happens. this is only going to make a bad situation worse. if times square is any indication, people are just staying away were just not even coming in to manhattan.

obviously, they know the worst is the yet to come. continuing our live coverage with the director of the national hurricane center. even though markets are closed today and will be tomorrow, we will be presenting you foreign market reaction. and also trading reaction. all because of a storm named sandy that has proven anything but dandy. if this is what they mean by october surprise, she is a bigtl surprise. but i bought a dress! a toast... ...to the capital one venture card. fly any airline, any flight, anytime. double miles you can actually use. what a coincidence?

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neil: bad wins wreaking havoc in new york where there are a lot of older buildings. this one, as you can see, south

of midtown. no injuries reported from this, but as you can see, it just ripped off the face of the building. furrher uptown, north of that location, you have a situation with a crane developing an unfolding. i should point out a lot of rescue vehicles just past radio city music hall hang a left and you will see a plane that is dangling outside one of the craziest buildings in manhattan. right now come the focus of attention is a 10 block radius

around columbus circle, which is outside central park south. police and rescue vehicles there. a lot of it is driven by when long before this thing even makes landfall. the windows ahead of it. the national hurricane center deputy director joins us right now. the irony is that we are going to be seeing a storm, that when it does make formal landfall, it won't be this information anymore? >> the official designation won't matter because of all the conditions and impact. we can see that on our satellite pictures, the big area means

that we will have landfall, but high winds and the storm surge are expected, and it is getting very deep in some places. 12 feet in the new york area. high tide is not for a few more hours. it may rise five more feet there because of the high tide. it creates this odd once in a century type of development. what do guys like you worry about? what is the fallout in the way this thing progresses? >> what is unusual is not that these two weather systems came together. what is unusual is where it is occurring and how strong storm

is once it is occurring. we don't see that occurring in this area. part of the mid-atlantic to the northeast. it is really unprecedented. often, we see it offshore. 80 miles per hour, 85 miles per hour, that is what makes it very unusual here because the winds are also piling up a storm surge along the coast. it could happen as we get minutes away from the storm making landfall. already preparing for the worst of what will be tomorrow. we do know that the supreme court has canceled tuesday argument hearings. that will be put off for another week. federal workers have a holiday tomorrow. they have been told not to come in. it is about 90% of the federal

workforce. this is one of those times when you prepare and everything grinds to a halt. tracking the storm and where it lands. what it can do after he dies.

neil: this is a place that we call home here at fox news. this is where you will find the news headquarters and we are locked in this corporate world because there is only way i'm crane we get off this island. it is in the lincoln tunnel. but they are crossing and selecting traffic very carefully. there is nowhere getting on to

manhattan. very few ways of getting off of manhattan. we are all just going to stay here. it is going to be one of those nights. picking up live coverage with our local affiliate. just to keep you abreast. peter barnes is in washington dc on the far-reaching impact of all this. >> that is right. government offices will be shut down again tomorrow in washington according to officials. but they will be working at the white house, as you know, president obama canceling campaign event this morning and campaign events tomorrow.

back to washington this morning to go to the white house. to try to manage this response. i was just over at the white house and there was sand bags. you see the president came out today and spoke. this place is a ghost town right now. i drove from the white house after that and i only saw a handful of cards. it has disrupted the campaign for governor romney as well. he canceled his campaign event. there is some word out of the romney camp of some kind of storm related event in ohio tomorrow. we don't have the details, but governor romney obviously trying

to stay in the spotlight on president obama is the nation's chief executive. neil: make you very much, peter. there have had been talk that there would be campaigning, but it would become relief supplies to areas affected were likely to be affected. again, there is no way to confirm that. meanwhile, looking at records. indicating that it has begun the process of shutting down electrical service. this is the area that is largely underwater. it makes it next to impossible to even try to fix things if they are all underwater anyway. but that is explaining why new york was the first point is the this.

already, they were getting inundated with the flooding. it has simply gotten worse. the better part of valor is to let go and address the serious concerns through midtown and uptown manhattan. we have our meteorologist, michael,,following all of this. what do you make of all this? >> the storm did become extratropical and no longer a hurricane in the afternoon hours. >> it means that it has transformed itself to more of a winter like storm. it kind of pulled itself great as it was making landfall in cape may, it actually made landfall near atlantic city. >> some of the storm surges are lingering a little bit longer. the winds are very powerful.

coastal jersey section upwards of 75 miles per hour. it ii still hurricane force winds there. neil: that could be damaged buildings and structures themselves. i guess i'm curious about is governor chris christie early on had said a lot of people never heed these warnings. when you think of that, michael? >> i think it is pushing a huge force of massive amounts of water onto these coastal communities. it really went out communities and change the cosine dramatically. neil: all the major power companies have said when power does go out, it's going to be out for a while.

forget about how that impacts the election. it is going to make a lot of people very upset. >> it's about time of year. this window allows you to have a hurricane and having nor'easter and the trees are still picking up the win in rain. we have a lot of power. neil: michael, thank you very much. i just have this up with those cities and counties that have reported this. that is how i come up with that 1.5 million roughly 2 million already without power. that is my number here adding all of these. experts are far more knowledgeable in some areas. certainly by morning, the numbers will grow significantly. and then the question is upwards of 20 million plus without power.

and then we are up against election day. and then if they vote, do you extend the election? if you don't do that, will it be like counting ballots in zimbabwe? it could be. all complicated by storm that is making a bad thing worse than making one of the worlds busiest thoroughfares anything but. more about the live coverage of the storm that is delivering just what we feared she would. and then some. we have the city manager, jeff kern, with his view after this 07

neil: you won't believe this. this is a crane. a $1.5 billion high-rise.

this crane class and high winds. they are having some engineers and firefighters climbing. seventy-four flights of stairs to examine the construction up close. we carry 60 pounds of equipment on her back, and they are going to be do they will see if there's any wat only will it be the priciest residential building in the world, but it's all virtually sold out. top prices is $10 million. a lot of chinese and russian

buyers. its own gdp. right now, the fear seems to be that this crane, if it were to loosen or fall down, they have cleared what is a 20 block radius. not the 10 bucks that i alluded to in and around that just in case things start falling or worse. as you can imagine, this is a very touchy situation. we have the city manager of long beach new york. i mistakenly said new jersey before. how are things looking in your neck of the woods? >> we see record-breaking flooding here in long beach. the ocean has met the bay in the center of the city. the city is submerged and completely out of power. >> when you say out of power, how many people does that affect?

>> is it hard to tell, are what are you hearing? >> i have no information on that yet. i know that we had long island power authority deployed here beforehand. promising to get power up and running as soon as possible if they did, indeed, go out. it seems to be an unprecedented situation here. the city is very much underwater, and i don't think we yet know what the repercussions of that are going to be. neil: a lot of the residents, a lot of hem didn't bother coming into midtown.

there is nowhere for these guys to go. >> absolutely. we are in a mandatory evacuation here in long beach. they did so before with hurricane irene. they felt that this one never measured up to the hype. what we are seeing is a storm that seems to be unfortunately exceeding the hype. we just hope folks are safe and we need them to know if anyone is listening, just hunker down. this is the absolute worst flooding we hope will be seen with the storm. it is tremendous. we have the ocean that breached the boardwalk and the bay, and double keds. a few in the center of the city, a few areas as well. neil: thank you so much, jeff. folks are dealing with a fair share of problems. all right. we do want to tell you that even

though our markets are closed today and will be closed tomorrow. markets are in the verge of opening up. some very good economic numbers in japan or the unemployment rate is very low. we are getting some other encouraging news out of china. keep in mind that the inability to cross trade markets will handicap or even hurt everything you get from this trading. we will nevertheless convey it to you. we are also hearing from the national hurricane service. fourteen minutes from hurricane sandy hitting atlantic city, the gambling capital. a city no stranger to floodwaters. they have been building over the

course of the last 24 hours adding insult to injury. it is going to start getting bad. very bad. how do jerseyans are doing to prepare for this. that is coming up next.

neil: all right, very dusty and peter barnes is anywhere from 60 to 80-mile per hour winds in the nations capital. the president did return to the white house earlier today. this ongoing storm. i want to show you what is going on in manhattan, right now.

much of the energy needs as new yorkers are experiencing a power outage. those who remember 9/11, this was the scene of 9/11. this is also the home of wall street. a lot of financial trading. it is this area that is most prone to flooding. this area that was closed off before the brooklyn battery tunnel. it connects this area of manhattan to new jersey. closed very early today. the reason why it is flooding, bad flooding. apparently thii is the way it is saying, after the mayor and others that urged them not to go to work, but residents are being told to stay there to clear out

of there. many of them dead. many said mightily over the next day or two in the city, we could have resources in those areas that are needed. they could use the help. they say when things get better, we might help out. but right now, we got the short end of the energy stick going on. deliberately cutting power to lower manhattan. us to focus on addressing other parts of the city. this is looking outside of sixth avenue. where rescue officials are addressing a development here that could get worse. this is earlier today. this crane collapsed outside a residence. it will be the largest private residence in the world when it is complete. right now, he crane threatens to clobber it.

the wind really picking up speed. by the way, that wind is picking up speed because of winds in excess of 100 miles per hour. the governor has announced that he is closing the midtown bridge -- the triborough bridge. just to play things safe. that would leave lincoln douglas as the real artery that connects the outside world. that, of course, next to the fine state of new jersey. a place where i call home. governor, new jersey itself, bracing for the worst when this thing hits the atlantic city area. we do know that there is already

a bad flooding problem and a lot of people are going to lose their power tonight and maybe for a long time. >> i have already lost mine, neil. neil: how long? >> listen, appear in this urban and suburban area, have talked to the police chief. starting a three o'clock timeffame, people started losing power. the wind is getting stronger and stronger. now, one of the things that companies have done, on sunday, they moved in in their trucks from out of state. you can't go around suburban new jersey without seeing these trucks just waiting for the storm to finish so they can restore power. people commented that the power is down. until the storm is over with, we

cannot get things fixed across the state. but when you look at the boardwalk in atlantic city, it washed away. that is a very dramatic way that shows you what is going on. neil: [talking over each other] neil: is that what you heard? >> yes, that is what i heard. when you look at the coast, it will take a while for us to restore all the damage with the federal government. you know, i don't see business and schools going back for a while. even in new jersey, they may not be back tomorrow. we want howard to be restored as quickly as possible. neil: governor, thank you so much. we appreciate it. if he is right, the headline was

atlantic city and the famed boardwalk might have been washed away tonight. there is a lot more coming up el. el. but because of business people like you, things are beginni to g rolling and regions is here to help. making it easier with the expertise and service to keep those wheels turning. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partnemoving forwa. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together. re we ere yet? are we there yet? [ male announcer ] it's the qstn we ask ourselves every day. is it the safest, th most efficient? the kind of vehicle to move not just people... but an industry forward? are we there y?

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neil: all right. we told you about the president being back in the white house.

mitt romney suspending a trip in iowa today. the battle for those we are hearing that we are talking about storm relief in ohio tomorrow. the way these things go, relief supplies and what have you, we want to look helpful and knowledge were trying to take advantage. right outside of our offices in midtown. when you make of this tentative romney stuff that we are getting? >> i can see. but i will tell you what. i would be out in the west. look, you and i are here in new